Starting out for Chiang Mai

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Well it's almost time to head off on my Habitat for Humanity build week. This year I'm going on the Jimmy Carter Work Project to the Mekong Delta, to Chiang Mai in Thailand. There's a lot of news of the build on the US Habitat website at : http://www.habitat.org/eca/

We're starting off from Belfast tomorrow night - well at 2.30 am on Friday 13th (great Day to travel !). We meet up at the Europa Bus Station in Belfast to get a bus to Dublin. Then it's Dublin to Abu Dhabi ; Abu Dhabi to Bangkok and then Bangkok to Chiang Mai .. so I reckon we'll be a wee bit shattered when we get there. But never mind, we have a day or so to recover before we start to build on Monday 16th November.

We Habitat builders are in good company. As well as former US President Jimmy Carter, our patron (pictured), who will lead our build in the Mekong Delta, President and Mrs. Obama have built with Habitat on September 11, 2009 as part of the US National Day of Service and Rememberance. Here they are with their build group.

There's been a test build on the site in Chiang Mai earlier in the year, to help prepare for the 82 houses that are planned to be built next week. Here's some activity from the test build and some info from the test builders :




Habitat construction manager Fernando Morales said the test build allowed them to assess the challenges that may occur during the actual build in November, when up to 82 houses will be built in one week in the village of Nong Gon Kru, some 20 kilometers north of Chiang Mai city.

Morales explained how the project will unfold for the 2,000 or so volunteers: “The first two days will be building walls. The second and third days will involve installing the roof trusses and half of the roof tiles. The fourth day is completing the roof, toilet and counter top for the kitchen, while the fifth day is for installing windows, doors and partition walls inside the house.”

So that's the plan, for our 82 houses in a week ! I'm really looking forward to the trip and will try to update the blog daily, (depending on Internet connections), to keep you up to date on the build activity,

Thanks again for your support,

Kate